


A family history of elevated bad luck...

by acesquared



Category: Original Work
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 10:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11804280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acesquared/pseuds/acesquared
Summary: PROMPT: You go down in a lift that doesn’t stop for hours. When it finally opens, what do you see?





	A family history of elevated bad luck...

There’s this thing in my family about elevators. You see… We’ve had a disproportionate number of elevator related deaths. I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s 110% true.

For instance, my uncle Milo, he worked in this office building. Corporate job, complete with monkey suits, suck-up interns, and a 40 floor elevator. Well, one day, in what the company called a “freak accident” his tie got caught in the doors and  _zippp,_  just like that he was gone. It was a catastrophe. The news didn’t talk about anything else for weeks. 

Before that it was my grandmother, Lorraine. Her story is a bit more eerie. She was working room service for a hotel. So she gets into this elevator, right. And the first thing she does is she clicks the button for the right floor, like a normal person. But there was nothing normal about the sudden “electrical surge” that instantly electrocuted and killed her. And the list goes on and on alright? You get the idea, my family has no luck with elevators.

So you can imagine my stark terror when I wake up in this elevator with no recollection of how I got there. I mean, this elevator is tiny too. Given the strange phenomena surrounding elevators and my family, I took it upon myself at a young age to learn all about them. My family said it was an unhealthy obsession, but I am determined to not become another of our clan’s folk tales. Anyways, a standard elevator is generally four and a half feet by six feet by eight feet tall. This is easily half that floor area and only about four inches above my five foot seven frame – clearly whoever made this elevator had no regard for the Elevator Safety Code. I mean jesus, I feel like a fucking sardine.

I have no way of telling how long I’ve been in this coffin of an elevator, but it’s been a long time. I mean, I was asleep, right? And I’ve been told that I sleep like the dead—Wait… what if I am dead? No, I refuse to believe I’m dead. Can’t be… This is just some elaborate dream. Or maybe even reality. But I am not dead.

Man… I’ll really have to edit this later. If there is a later. So I’m sititng here—standing really –   tapping out this goodbye letter? Memoir? Whatever it is, I’m writing it on my phone, okay?

Right, as I was saying. I’ve been here for a while, because I don’t remember how I got here, which means I must have been moved while I was sleeping. And I haven’t been sleeping for a long time. A couple hours at least. Honestly, I don’t even know if the elevator is moving, but it won’t open, so I have to assume that it is…

\- - - -

Where am I even going? I’ve pondered that a couple of times over the hours. The tallest building in the world is Khalifa Tower in Dubai. Two-point-seven thousand feet tall. One-hundred-and-sixty-three floors and forty-six maintenance levels. Even if this elevator was in  _that_  I would have stopped by now.

Maybe this is an elevator to Atlantis or El Dorado or something. Hey, don’t look at me like that. If I’m going to dream, I may as well dream big.

\- - - -

I sat down around a while ago. The space is a bit cramped, but my legs were getting tired. I’ll probably stand up again soon.

\- - - -

I think I saw light through the crack in the elevator doors. But that might have been my imagination, because it’s gone now. Am I going mad now? I lost track of time since I started writing this. And my phone screen is broken where the time is supposed to show up. Stupid, I know.

\- - - -

I definitely saw light this time, and it’s getting wider. It’s funny, because I never felt the elevator stop. Maybe it was never even moving. I’ll just be glad to get out of this fucking death trap. I don’t remember when I got to my feet. I think my legs are numb. Hell, I think my brain is numb. All I can concentrate on is the steadily widening light coming from the elevator doors. I stumble out

    And

            Everything

                        Stops

                                    …

All around me is a group of people. A group of people that look suspiciously like Uncle Milo and Granma Lorraine and various other people who look like they may be related to me.

“Am I…?” The words come out as a croak and my Uncle Milo walked over and clapped one of his big hands on my shoulder.

“Turns out it isn’t a stairway after all, eh kiddo? It’s an elevator… that goes _down_!” He let out that full hacking laugh that I remember so well from my childhood, doubled over.

I blink and look over at Granma Lorraine in confusion, shaking my head. She just smiled and took my hand, leading me through the crowd of people and light. “It wasn’t an elevator, sweetheart, not for you anyways.” She smiled kindly and stroked my hair. “You got hit by a train, of all things.” She shook her head and I thought I heard a chuckle. “But yes, the final journey is in an elevator… that goes down.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that? It wasn’t going down! I couldn’t even tell it was moving?!”

A couple of my relatives – as I now realize they are – look at me strangely and shake their heads. I now realize that we’re all walking through a field of dead flowers.

“This is… nothing like I thought it would be,” I mumble, looking around.

“Of course it isn’t. Did you really think that you would know anything about the afterlife before you got there? That’s such a silly notion that people have. It’s not all great, it’s more like… not bad. But hey, after life where we were before, it’s a cake walk, am I right?” She chuckled and picked one of the brown flowers. “And at least we have family here.”

“I… guess?” I murmur, still a little shell shocked to find that I am, in fact, dead and that heaven – or whatever this place is – is nothing like I expected it to be.

\- - - -

There is a ding and I groan, blinking my eyes open and shaking my head. My coworker, Lynn, is crouching next to me, her lips moving. I can’t quite make out what she’s saying, but through the fog I manage to make out the words “late” and “meeting.” Shit. I jolt up from where I am lying, – presumably having collapsed – on the floor of the elevator and get to my feet, mind still spinning from that strange experience I just had.

“Wha- What happened?” I ask, my mouth feeling like it’s full of cotton.

“I don’t know, one minute you were telling me this weird story about why you don’t like elevators, and then you just passed out. Come  _on_.” She starts pulling me out of the elevator, apologizing to everyone around us.

As she drags me, I take a moment to stare back at the elevator and only one thought passes through my mind.  _‘You’ve been spared.’_  I shudder. From now on, I’m taking the stairs.


End file.
